A large company decided to reward project managers and team members based on performance. Sounds good, right? Tie people’s pay to the outcome of a program or project. Success leads to better pay and failure leads to pay reduction. Now everyone has skin in the game.
Except that multi-year programs that naturally have personnel turnover now have a new recruiting dimension. Imagine this recruiting conversation:
Hiring Manager: “You’ll be rewarded if this program is profitable.”
Potential Project Manager: “How is the program doing now?”
HM: “Not well. It hasn’t been profitable for the past two years.”
PPM: “So… I’ll be rewarded based upon the failures of past executives, PMs, and team members? Hmm. Think I’ll pass on that…”
